Licensed games have never really worked for me. Somehow having an explicit tie to another medium damages the game's claim to its own reality; the sense of place that makes a game unique is diminished if you know it's just a digital recreation of a film set. Games even seem to lose something when I find out they're based on some obscure manga, even if I'll never read it. This may make me crazy — it's been said before. But in any case, adaptations from the NES era could occasionally circumvent this effect. Maybe it's because the technology of the time had a naturally abstracting effect. You could at least count on a game, whatever the source, to have more architecture than plot — which was good, because if you'd wanted plot, you would've just watched or read whatever the game was based on in the first place.
Moreover, since pulling music from the source usually wasn't an option, you sometimes (if you were lucky) got a delicious batch of tunes, which always helped give the game a feel of its own. Here I'm thinking of Yoshihiro Sakaguchi's score for DuckTales, probably the best of Capcom's late-'80s Disney adaptations. With the exception of the DuckTales theme — which plays only over the title screen and the ending — the DuckTales score is completely original. And with all due respect to the beloved cartoon, the game soundtrack does a better job suggesting globetrotting adventure and exploration. (Not surprising, since Sakaguchi also worked on the soundtrack for Mega Man II, probably the most revered NES soundtrack of all.) Start with the stage-select music. Clocking in at three seconds, it's about as simple as you can get, but it immediately sets a mysterious tone with its pizzicato melody and arpeggiating bassline. From there, head to Transylvania, where a spooky minor-key tune builds to a quick descending series of syncopated chords. I may be imagining things here, but somehow even the basic square waves that comprise this track (and every track on the NES) seem to be tweaked for a ghostly shimmering effect. Listen closely to the chorus section, from 0:30 to 0:41 or so, to hear what I mean. (Interestingly, the beta version of DuckTales had a completely different track for Transylvania; it's got a less-melodic hook, but it's pretty cool on its own right, and features the same spoooooky square waves.)
But of course, the highlight of the DuckTales soundtrack and one of the greatest tracks on the NES is the theme from the Moon level. Evoking the bittersweet melodicism of Yasunori Mitsuda (think "To Far Away Times," the wistful track that concludes Chrono Trigger), this theme loops a celestial sixteenth-note pattern under a melody that stays just on the sweet side of cloying via a perfectly considered key change at 0:36. In its mixture of triumph and yearning, this classic song captures the spirit of wanderlust in a way its source material never could.
Previous OSTs:
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras